“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” - George W. Bush

Sunday, May 18, 2014

March 18, 2011 - President Obama told a bipartisan group of members of Congress today that he expects the U.S. would be actively involved in any military action against Libya for "days, not weeks," after which he said the U.S. would take more of a supporting role, sources tell ABC News.

Farrakhan had it right:THE BULLSHIT LEADING UP TO IT:

May 18, 2014 - GUNFIRE, POLITICAL CHAOS IN LIBYA WITH ATTACK ON PARLIAMENT

Militiamen loyal to a rogue former general attacked Libya’s parliament building Sunday, state media said, in a new challenge to the authority of the North African nation’s weak central government. The group later reportedly declared it had replaced the lawmaking body.

Gunfire rang out in streets surrounding the General National Congress complex in the capital, Tripoli, witnesses said, and the official LANA news agency said routes leading to it had been blocked by armed men with truck-mounted heavy weapons.

Frightened residents took to social media to report rocket fire in at least one area of the capital, and the road to the city's international airport was closed. The Associated Press cited hospital officials saying the attack killed one person and wounded nine.

It was not clear whether any lawmakers were inside the parliament building at the time of the assault. LANA quoted one as saying most had left earlier after a session was adjourned, and other reports said the building had been nearly emptied after warnings of the coming attack. However, the website of the Libya Herald, an English-language newspaper, said seven lawmakers apparently had been captured by the assailants.

A spokesman for Khalifa Haftar, the former general, later appeared on television to say the assailants had assigned a 60-member constituent's assembly to take over for parliament and that the current government would act on an emergency basis, the Associated Press reported.

The spokesman, Mokhtar Farnana, called the attack not a coup but “fighting by people's choice.”

Adding to the chaos, there were indications that other pro- and anti-government militias were taking sides with either the assailants or the government. Citing witnesses, the BBC reported that members of the powerful Zintan militia appeared to be taking part in the assault, and AP quoted an official with an umbrella group of militias providing security for the government as saying its fighters had engaged the attackers.

The attack on the parliament building marked an escalation of Haftar’s campaign to supplant Libya’s central authority. Lawmakers are divided among Islamist and non-Islamist elements, and the swearing in of a new cabinet led by an Islamist-leaning prime minister, Ahmed Matiq, has been repeatedly delayed by political infighting.

The targeting of parliament came two days after the fighters affiliated with Haftar, who was prominent in the 2011 revolt against late strongman Moammar Kadafi, launched an offensive against bases belonging to armed Islamist groups in the eastern city of Benghazi. That fighting, involving commandeered military aircraft, left 70 dead and more than 140 injured, LANA said Sunday.

Acting Prime Minister Abdullah Thani and the regular army’s chief of staff characterized Haftar’s attacks on the Islamists — and his ignoring of orders to stand down — as tantamount to a coup.

Although the government insisted that Haftar was acting without any authorization, some military units apparently defected to his force, which he calls the National Army.

Libyan authorities imposed a “no-fly” zone over Benghazi in a bid to prevent Haftar from again sending fighter planes and helicopters aloft.

Thani ordered the army to restore order after the ex-general launched his attack in Benghazi, but the country’s regular armed forces are weak and disorganized. Western governments, including the Obama administration, are moving to train and professionalize Libyan troops but have made little headway.

The illegal exceeding of the UN resolution, in which the US and NATO chose to become the Libyan Rebel Air Force instead of creating a No Fly Zone, continues to pay dividends. Libya’s oil shipments, most of which went to the US and NATO, have dropped to 8% of normal, a 92% reduction for the US and NATO. This helps keep oil prices at or above $100 per barrel, raises revenues for Arab oil states, raises donations to al Qaeda and other Arab rebel groups, damages US and NATO economies and militaries, and lets the US and NATO pay for both sides in the war. One of Osama bin Laden’s six reasons for 9-11 was that the US worked to keep oil prices far below $100 per barrel. The illegal US and NATO intervention has helped correct that problem(?).

Now, a retired Libyan general, Khalifa Haftar, has launched attacks in both Tripoli and Bengazi. Some reports show Libyan Air Force helicopters assisting General Haftar’s “Libyan National Army.” It may be that Libya needs a “strong man” to lead the country at this period in its history. The development of democracy may take detours in some countries, but they are not the responsibilities of the USA.

Yep, big US victory. In Benghazi. In Tripoli. Democracy breaking out all over the country. Butter, not guns. Peace and harmony prevails. Reconstruction. Women's rights. Libya about ready to join NATO now. No radical Moslems around. Who can disagree?

Who cares who is in Libya? The US is not at war with Radical Islam, the US is allied with it, Has been for decades. financed the formation of Al-Qaeda, financed the Pakistani nuclear program with the assistance of the Saudi.

The fact is the US is winning, if Anonymous knew the score, he'd have an identity. But he hides, The advances in the Ukraine stand as another example of NATO influence expanding, right up the Russian border.

But losers are always looking for confirmation that they are losers. It easy to find, but not an accurate description of reality.

The opium production in Afghanistan has significantly increased since the US invaded. Most of it is shipped north to Russia, further destabilizing that country. As Romney said, Russia is the number one threat to the US. Obama is destabilizing it, limiting it all across the globe, but the naysayers refuse to recognize this. Partisanship and stupidity, going hand in hand

The official opening of the 9/11 museum brought President Obama to New York and sparked fresh reminders of the horror of that awful day. The president called the site ­“sacred” and gave a moving speech about the American spirit, saying, “Like the great wall and bedrock that embrace us today, nothing can ever break us.”It is the right thing to say and the right place to say it. But is it true? Is the American spirit really unbreakable?I have my doubts.There are many examples that say our spirit is breaking if not already broken. One involves a Wall StreetJournal report that, six years after the housing bubble popped and sank the economy, federal officials want to lower mortgage standards again so more people can buy houses that they can’t afford. Been there, done that would seem to be the logical response, but the idea is gaining momentum because so few people can legitimately qualify for credit that the only way to spur housing growth is to junk the standards.The same thing is happening in schools. Americans overwhelmingly agree that our educational system, once the envy of the world, is now lagging.The cry to challenge students spawned a movement to raise the bar through the Common Core curriculum, but it is now grinding to a halt in New York and other places. The problem: Too many students are failing the tougher tests, making teachers look bad, parents unhappy — and politicians nervous.So the standards are being shuffled aside, and self-esteem is back as the new measure of success. More students can appear to be learning and, presumably, that will make the adults happy, at least temporarily.Because this retreat from rigor in favor of cultural “social promotion” is playing out in a million different ways in our vast society, the world sees that America is going soft and embracing decline. A loss of respect for our nation is now nearly universal. No wonder: If we don’t respect our own ideals, why should others?The world’s two next largest powers certainly have taken note, and are acting as if they have nothing to fear from America.Russia’s aggressive expansion into Europe and China’s warlike moves in East Asia carry a warning of historic menace. They are on the march and determined to expand their spheres of control.Worse, Vladimir Putin arrives in China next week in a visit heavy with symbolic and real significance. There will be trade deals, joint military maneuvers and the clear imagery of cooperation in the bid to further erode the power of America and the West.It is not hard to imagine Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping raising a glass to toast Obama’s health. His tenure is their opportunity. Similarly, the mullahs of Iran see a clear path to nuclear weapons, a development that could spark a major war.Which brings us back to the 9/11 museum. The worst terror attack in the nation’s history was, in hindsight, inevitable. It followed our victory in the Cold War, a period marked by heated debates about how to spend the “peace dividend” we got from cutting our military. We celebrated by taking what somebody called “a holiday from history.”We were so drunk with contentment that we didn’t notice that Osama bin Laden declared war on us. The first attack on the World Trade Center came in 1993, followed by bombings of our embassies in Africa. In October 2000, the USS Cole, a warship, was the target of suicide bombers off Yemen. All those attacks were carried out by al Qaeda, which struck again one year later and finally woke us up.And now we are going back to sleep. “The tide of war is receding,” Obama says, without ever saying the word victory. He cut our military already, and proposes to cut it again, making it smaller than it was before World War II.But wars don’t end until one side wins, and this one isn’t over just because we want it to be. If 9/11 didn’t teach us that, we missed its most important lesson.

Statistics about fatherless children reveal plenty concerning the chaos the news media pretend not notice almost every time stories involving bona fide juvenile delinquents appear. Of the youths in prison, 85 percent are from fatherless homes. Children without fathers account for 63 percent of youth suicides, 70 percent of teenage pregnancies, 80 percent of rapists with displaced anger, 85 percent of children with behavioral problems, and 71 percent of high schooldropouts.

We've "reset" our relations with Russia, losing in Afghanistan, Iraq is a mess, Syria and Libya couldn't care less what we do because they know we do anything, likewise Iran, but we have sent 600 troops into Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. There's a statement of firm intent !

Since Friday when India’s election results were announced, pundits worldwide have been trying to tell us what should make of the landslide victory that made Narendra Modi Prime Minister (PM). Most of it, however, is punditry through Google that misses the point: Narendra Modi’s election was a victory of free-market capitalism over socialism and national pride over geopolitical docility; in short, for Conservatism and we better get on the victory train quickly or watch it speed by without us.

I noticed on the blog log that some of the blasts from the past are making their way forward ...

I told you guys that there were gems back in the past.

Glad you agree with the editorial direction that was charted in the last rendition of the Elephant Bar.Could use some editorial images, though.To get the Bar up to modern standards of content and understanding.

When the U.S. military “liberates” a nation, shouldn’t it result in more liberty, freedom and peace for the people living there? Instead, we find just the opposite. In fact, in every single case since 9/11, when the U.S. military has “liberated” a nation it has resulted in the persecution of Christians in that country becoming much worse. In areas where we spent hundreds of billions of dollars and where thousands of precious American lives were sacrificed, churches are regularly being bombed, Christians are being brutally beheaded, and laws have been passed to make it illegal for a Muslim to convert to Christianity. If we were not even able to provide the most basic of liberties and freedoms to the people living in those nations, what in the world did we actually accomplish by “liberating” them?

Just look at what has happened in Afghanistan. We have been at war in Afghanistan for more than a dozen years, and yet things are so bad for Christians in that country at this point that there is not a single church left…

The supposedly “moderate” Karzai government installed by the U.S. upholds many of the draconian laws enforced by the Taliban—including the apostasy law, fiercely persecuting those who seek to convert to Christianity—and, in 2011, under U.S. auspices, it destroyed Afghanistan’s last Christian church.

We find a similar story in Iraq. It is estimated that before the invasion, there were up to 2 million Christians living in Iraq. Now that number is down to less than 450,000, and it is falling fast.

In fact, things are so dire for Iraq’s Christian community that some Iraqi Christian leaders are warning that Christians may soon become “extinct” in that nation…

As the mass exodus of Iraq’s Christians continues, so does the call for ending the plight of those who have remained. Like Iraq’s ancient Jewish community before them, one of the world’s oldest Christian communities may soon cease to exist.

The disappearance of Iraq’s religious minorities has been a troubling trend since the US-led invasion in 2003, and it has threatened to end the cultural diversity of Iraq. As the violence in the country spikes and religious intolerance grows, many Christians, Yazidis, Mandaeans and other minority community members are leaving the country.

Last week, the head of the Iraqi Catholic Church sent a chilling warning that Iraq’s 2,000-year-old Christian community is on the brink of extinction as new waves of Christians take the journey of exodus.

It is estimated that the Iraq war cost U.S. taxpayers more than 2 trillion dollars.

We spent more than a million dollars on one soccer field alone (which has now turned to dust).

Resource Strategist Warns of New Russian Threat: “It Would Be the Greatest Blackout in American History”

If Russia were to restrict the export of that uranium, explains Katusa, life as we know it in the United States could come to an abrupt halt.

If that happened America’s lights would go out. It would be the greatest blackout in American history…

The irony is John Kerry is going out there with Obama and talking about all these sanctions they’re going to put on the Russians. If the Russians wanted they could pull the rug out from under the American energy matrix and 20%, one out of every five homes in America, would be in blackout.

You have to remember the facts… You can talk about hope and dreams all you want, but the reality is that one in every five homes in America is powered by Russian fuel.

In the following must listen interview with Future Money Trends, Marin Katusa delves into the facts behind America’s dependence not just on foreign oil, but uranium and other resources, and explains the repercussions should Russia choose to literally “pull the plug” on the United States.

A West Virginia doctor is coming forward with new allegations against the Department of Veterans Affairs, claiming that she too was told to put patients seeking treatment off for months on end -- and that at least two of them committed suicide.

The claims add to the mounting controversy surrounding the VA, and allegations in several states that workers were concealing information about the long wait times veterans encountered. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki testified last week before Congress on the scandal, but so far has resisted calls for his resignation.

Dr. Margaret Moxness, who says she was employed at the Huntington VA Medical Center in Charleston, W.Va., from 2008 to 2010, told "Fox & Friends" on Monday that she was told to delay treatment even after she told supervisors they needed immediate care. She said at least two patients committed suicide while waiting for treatment between appointments.

“I was in a very tight-knit community,” Moxness said. “There was lots of extracurricular support: family, faith, vet centers. So we had help, but no thanks to the VA. …I mean, these men were eventually going to need more than a visit every 10 months.”

Moxness, a psychiatrist, says the VA administrators lost touch with patients and claims they were compassionless.

“They don’t really experience what the doctors and nurses are experiencing, which is the suffering and the pain and the death,” she said.

Calls to the VA for comment on Moxness' allegations have not been returned.

Moxness, who is currently writing a book on suicide, said her patients would be forced to wait “months” for a second visit. She said that “means they’re partially treated, which means they’re worse off than no treatment at all.”

Moxness said when she complained to her supervisors that it was harmful to partially treat patients, they stopped talking to her.

“I was functionally silenced,” she said.

Whistle-blowers in Texas and Missouri have also discussed with Fox News their allegations of long delays and poor treatment in VA facilities.

Responding to the controversy, the Obama administration on Friday announced the resignation of the top VA health official, Under Secretary for Health Robert Petzel -- a day after that official testified alongside Shinseki. Petzel, though, had already been planning to retire this year.

The VA has also put three senior officials in Phoenix on administrative leave after doctors there said they were ordered to hold veterans' names for months on a secret waiting list until a spot opened up on an official list that met the agency's two-week waiting time goals.

Allegations have been reported about similar cover-up schemes at VA medical facilities in at least seven other cities.

The Huntington VA Medical Center has 80 beds. In 2008, it provided care to 293,000 outpatients and 4,200 inpatients.

May 19, 2014Think Tank Question: Russia is to the Ukraine as China is to what?

James LongstreetEmbolden and agitated, but agitated by actions initiated by themselves. Clever ploys?

No. History is rife with staged provocations. Gulf of Tonkin, the Panay, the opening shots of the Mexican War, and the Greer incident in 1941. Of late, entering a country such as Ukraine to protect Russian speaking people. These actions are formulamatic. If Obama had studied American history, he might recognize the game board.

Obama has a few years left in office and therefore his mission of jamming through the Obama/ Holder domestic agenda onto the American landscape is on the clock. Because President Obama has a few years remaining, Russia and China are also on a time schedule.

The Community Organizer was to rely on Joe Biden and Senator Lugar for foreign relations guidance. His Secretary of State was Bill Clinton’s jilted wife who had more interest in padding her Foundation and racking up mileage points than diplomatic achievement. The Obama foreign policy became “come on guys," a Rodney King “can’t we all get along”," or just a “kum ba ya” group hug.

Russia has now pushed the agenda envelope by steadily and increasingly implementing Putin’s plan via Ukraine and Crimea. The pushback by the world, or lack thereof, and the United States is for all to see. China observes, and now seems to engage in the same game, emboldened by the non response of the world to Putin’s antics.

Taiwan is China’s Ukraine. The gambit is to test the waters with Vietnam. In all likelihood China will confront Vietnam in a veiled excuse to protect Chinese citizens and “interests." (sound familiar?) The Vietnamese have already begun to react by burning Chinese owned factories in their country in response to China’s calculated oil rig infringement into Vietnam waters. China pushes as Putin pushed.

Unlike Japan, Vietnam doesn’t have any treaty with the United States regarding guaranteed protections.

Bottom line is the situation in which we find the world. Anachronistic treaties and promises presently in an era of American hegemony decline and completewith encouraged and empowered opponents. We have, as the saying goes…”Written checks that can no longer be cashed.”

Defend Japan? Defend South Korea? Defend Ukraine? We are stretched too thin and too few stand with us. The “old days” are over, complimented by the decline in the US economy and the newly acquired economic powers of China. The goal is Taiwan and who is to say “no”?

What nonsense.Compares apples to oranges, then draws faulty conclusions based upon the nonsensical comparisons.

The US staged a coup in the Kiev, deposed a legally elected government and installed a puppet regime in it place.The Russians reacted in kind in the Crimea.

This situation in eastern Europe is then compared to the Geo-politics of the Pacific - Comparing Taiwan to the Ukraine, which is ludicrous on the face of it. Then the author jumps across the South China Sea to Vietnam and tries to compare US interests in Vietnam to those it maintains with Japan and South Korea.

Longstreet then doubles back to US Treaty obligations with Japan and South Korea, and extrapolates those to Europe, to the Ukraine. Where the US has no such obligation to "Defend Ukraine". Then jumps nonsensically to the issue of Formosa.

Just another case of US bashing by a pseudo intellectual that has no basis in reality

Death is a part of every Christian's life, and no one can escape it. However, for Christians, it is only the beginning of an eternal walk with the Lord. This is something that we need to keep in mind daily. Death does not mean the end for us - it is the beginning of everlasting life with the Lord.

If you are worried about dying or need help dealing with the death of a loved one, these Bible verses about death can help. This Bible advice on death can help you see the Light and the Truth easier.

Ecclesiastes 7:1 A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.

"Obamacare is just a "marketplace." Coverage decisions are made by the insurance companies - the same as they are in any other group policy. In fact, that is all Obamacare is: a marketplace of large "true group policies."

Just because someone paid taxes in the past, has no bearing upon the future. This is not only plain common sense, it is the Law of the Land and has been since 1960 when the Supreme Court of the United States decided Fleming v. Nestor.

Just because a beneficiary of Government largesse pays a small supplemental tax, does not mean that the tail can wag the dog.

Your argument for avoiding Government management of government funds is not only not based on any factual argument, it is not based upon the Constitution. It is an argument for anarchy.

Just imagine the discordance (I prefer the word, discombobulation) that has to take place in the brain of the poor, white, Southern cracker as he casts his ballot in support of the anti-minimum wage, anti-healthcare, anti-Union, anti-Environmental Protection, anti-FDA, and anti-Social Security Koch Brothers Candidate.

Maybe that is why bobbo recommends Republicans wear Obama buttons, he is just conflicted.

Living off of Federal benefits, collecting Medicare and Social Security welfare benefits, at the same time wanting to eliminate Federal programs he does not benefit from. While simultaneously objecting to any type of Federal oversight of the Federal welfare programs he enjoys.

He demands no interference in his welfare receipts, but advocates cutting off everyone else.

bobbo, the definitive wackle-doodle. Even wears an Obama button, to confuse himself.

Federal energy authorities have slashed by 96% the estimated amount of recoverable oil buried in California's vast Monterey Shale deposits, deflating its potential as a national "black gold mine" of petroleum.

Just 600 million barrels of oil can be extracted with existing technology, far below the 13.7 billion barrels once thought recoverable from the jumbled layers of subterranean rock spread across much of Central California, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.

It was announced in March that Austin Energy would likely be buying electricity from a SunEdison solar power plant for less than 5¢/kWh under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA). If you’re not familiar with electricity prices, that’s really low. The final deal was just completed last week but with an unanticipated move – Austin Energy closed negotiations with Recurrent Energy. The Recurrent Energy press release explains that it received “an award from Austin Energy for 150 MW of solar capacity in West Texas. The power will be delivered to Austin Energy pursuant to a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement.”

Recurrent Energy doesn’t mention what happened with SunEdison, of course, but it does pump up its status as a leading utility-scale solar power plant developer:

Recurrent Energy is redefining what it means to be a mainstream clean energy company, with a fleet of utility-scale solar plants that provide competitive clean electricity. The company has more than 2 GW of solar projects in development in North America.

According to a report by Pew using analysis from the Urban Institute, approximately 258,600 of those veterans are living below the poverty line in states refusing to expand Medicaid. Without veteran's benefits — and with incomes too low to qualify for subsidies to use on the state exchanges — these veterans are left without affordable coverage options.

Twenty states are staunchly refusing to expand the program, and a few are still . . . . . . .

'The stinking, fucking Republicans' in the House are introducing a bill allowing Shinseki, who should be fired himself, to fire somebody. You can fire these guv'mint workers. Big problem. It's not funding, there is plenty of funding, which increased under Bush. You can't fire these incompetents. All our government agencies are like this. Everyone is incompetent at the VA, except the doctors, and in all the government agencies. We are noticing this because people are dying because of it, and they aren't dying over at the Dept. of Agriculture, unless some ag agent should mis-fire his new .40 caliber submachine gun while playing with it.

Obama knows nothing, sees nothing, and hears nothing unless his lapdogs bark, then his ears perk up. Not exactly using a hunting dog to flush out the truth, is he? Kind of reminds me of that famous Will Rogers quote: “All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that’s an alibi for my ignorance.”

The head of a government that has the most sophisticated spying apparatus ever created can monitor who we talk to, what we talk about, how many twinkies our kids eat and the calories we consume, where we travel, etc. etc., yet announces our President’s daily Intelligence report is actually prepared by Matt Drudge. Hmmm. Perhaps the NSA should take out ads in the sports section to assure the President reads his morning Intelligence briefing.

Here’s a quick video of our Community Organizer-in-Chief explaining his lack of knowledge of the nation’s major scandals, using his favorite convenient excuse and perhaps also saying much about his management skills with a dysfunctional, disinterested staff. What do you think?

Americans who watch this story play out and fail to make the clear and obvious connection to Obamacare will be guilty of willful ignorance. The systemic flaw is identical. It's just magnified on a massive scale. Rather than making a false promise to treat all of the ills of a relatively few sick and injured military veterans, Obamacare has put the federal government on the path to taking responsibility for the medical needs — and the attendant costs — of the entire U.S. population.

A cloud rose in the north and crept across the land, a dark cloud, roiling and sulfurous, laced with firedamp explosions that lit the night. Initially born in Stygian darkness during the Carboniferous Period, precursor to the five great extinctions including The Great Dying of the Triassic, the cloud was the most recent incarnation of the chaos generated when the Titan Gondwana rolled across the South Pole and ravished the Goddess Aurora before moving on and leaving her to bear the three Graeae, Oil and Coal and Gas, eldritch and fey, sisters to the monstrous Gorgons.

As the cloud moved it stilled the wind and blotted out the sun. In its wake, crops, corn and switch grass withered and died, just as in previous millennia brachiopods and trilobites and triceratops and fungi and countless other species shared the same fate.

And as the storm drew near, a figure could be seen being born by the cloud, amorphous and inchoate, a dark eminence robed in black, it was the Quirkster come bearing the message of the Graeae. Through unmoving lips he proclaimed their wisdom:

Some Washington insiders expected President Obama to announce the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki after the two men met in the Oval Office this morning. Yet even with the VA hospitals scandal gathering momentum each day, Obama chose to keep Shinseki in place. Why?

There are several reasons. First, Shinseki is a decorated veteran himself, a retired four-star general and former Army Chief of Staff who was seriously wounded in Vietnam. Members of Congress, and all Americans for that matter, view that record with respect. Second, heading the VA is a tough and unglamorous job, and finding a good candidate to replace Shinseki will not be easy; it's not something Obama wants to do if he doesn't have to. And third, even if a top-tier candidate agreed to take the job, cleaning up the VA mess will be a difficult task given >>>>>>>federal government personnel rules that make it virtually impossible for the secretary to fire workers involved in the scandal.<<<<<<<<<

But there's another reason Shinseki is hard for the president to dismiss. The retired general has for years been a particular hero to Obama's supporters on the left for his conflictwith the George W. Bush administration during the run-up to the war in Iraq.

May 22, 2014Israel Will Be The Last Man Standing in the Middle East5 tips to get the best mortgage rates (TopTipsNews)By David ArchibaldThe Arab Spring, which started with the self-immolation of a Tunisian vegetable vendor at 11.30 am on 16th December, 2010, has resulted in two failed states in the region so far. Libya has become “Scumbag Woodstock” because of the number of terrorist organisations headquartered there. The French and English attempt at regime change created a terrorist haven with consequences as far afield as Mali and the 300 Christian girls kidnapped in Nigeria. Fortunately, Syria has become a meatgrinder for Islamic terrorists and for the moment has ceased being a net exporter of terrorism. In that conflict, the Obama Administration has chosen to support the side that does all the beheadings. Perhaps it is a brilliant plan -- a rational person would want the meatgrinder to keep grinding rather than have the Islamists defeated too quickly.

The last time Syria attacked a civilised nation was the Yom Kippur War of 1973 in which it and Egypt launched a surprise attack on Israel. At the time, Syria had a population of seven million and Egypt 38 million. It was also about the last time that both countries could feed themselves from their own agricultural efforts. Their populations are now 22 million and 83 million respectively, with all the increase in population from 1973 fed with imported grain. This is true of the whole Middle East – North Africa (MENA) region. This is shown in the following graph going from Morocco in the west to Afghanistan in the east.

The size of each bar is the country’s population in millions. The blue part is the proportion fed from domestic production and the red part is the proportion kept alive with grain imports. Arguably Norman Borlaug and his green revolution allowed this situation to come about. World grain production outran population growth up to about a decade ago and grain became the cheapest it has been in history. Feeding these growing populations has been very cheap for regimes that subsidise bread to keep their populations quiescent. At the current price of wheat of $330 per metric ton and per capita consumption of 300 kg per annum, it only costs $0.27 per day in grain to keep someone alive.

But grain yields in most countries have plateaued since 2000 and grain prices have started rising again. That effect will be accelerated by the solar-driven global cooling that has started. At some stage the cost of keeping everyone fed will overwhelm one of the MENA countries and it will collapse in mass starvation. There will then be a mad scramble around the world to stockpile grain, sending prices yet higher. In turn, that will set off a domino effect in the graph above. Using an animal model of population collapse (the snowshoe hare and lynx), populations might fall to 10% of carrying capacity -- back to levels last seen 200 years ago.

Israel imports most of its grain requirements as do all its neighbours. The big difference is that Israel has a GDP per capita of $30,000-odd which is at least ten times that of its neighbours. Israel could afford a much higher grain price. That country also is the most efficient desalinator of seawater on the planet. With a cost of $0.52 per cubic metre, it is able to grow commercial crops using desalinated seawater. For Israel to survive from here, all it has to do is out-wait its neighbors. In the good old days, a large population meant a country could have a large army. These days it means the ongoing drag of having to feed a lot of unproductive people with every missed grain shipment a potential disaster.

Hang in there Israel. Just a few more years and all your surrounding enemies will become semi-starved tribes with rifles and pickup trucks at best.

David Archibald, a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., is the author of Twilight of Abundance: Why Life in the 21st Century Will Be Nasty, Brutish, and Short (Regnery, 2014).

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.